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American Olympic rower (1889–1960)

Kelly was born in Philadelphia, one of 10 children of Irish immigrants John Henry Kelly (1847–1917), who emigrated from his homestead near Newport, County Mayo, in 1869, and Mary Ann Costello (1852–1926), who arrived in the U. S. in 1867. He attended public schools and at night attended the Spring Garden Institute. In 1907, he began bricklaying in Philadelphia as an apprentice at his brother Patrick's construction firm. Standing 6'2", he was a gifted athlete and competed in football and basketball in addition to rowing, which he learned on the Schuylkill River. By 1916, Kelly was a national rowing champion and the best sculler in the United States. As part of the World War I callup, Kelly joined the United States Army as a private in October 1917. He rose to the rank of lieutenant by the time he was discharged in April 1919. While in the Army, Kelly entered the armed forces boxing tournament as a heavyweight and ran up a 12–0 record before being waylaid by a broken ankle. held annually on the River Thames, the most prestigious event in rowing. In spite of his American success and winning streak, the event's organizers rejected his application, citing an earlier dispute with his rowing club and the fact that he had worked as a manual laborer:

The minutes of the regatta's Committee of Management for June 3, 1920, read: "The list of entries outside of the United Kingdom under Rule iv was presented and received with the exception of Mr J. B. Kelly of the Vesper Boat Club to compete in the Diamond Sculls, which was refused under the resolution passed by the Committee on 7th June, 1906 'viz' 'That no entry from the Vesper Boat Club of Philadelphia, or from any member of their 1905 crew be accepted in future': Mr Kelly was also not qualified under Rule I (e) of the General Rules (manual labour)." That 1906 resolution banned members of the Vesper Boat Club from the event because their eight man team in the Grand Challenge Cup had used a public subscription to raise the money to travel to London, breaching the regatta's rule on amateurism. The regatta committee's minutes also note that they rejected Kelly because he had worked in a manual trade (bricklaying). The regatta's rules on amateurism excluded anyone "who is or ever has been by trade or employment for wages a mechanic, artisan or labourer." Two days before Kelly was due to sail to the UK, with his passage booked and his boat boxed, he received a telegram which said: "Entry rejected; letter follows." He never received the letter. The Henley Stewards later declared that they had informed the governing board for U. S. rowing as soon as Kelly's entry was processed, and that it was not their fault if the information was not passed on. This rejection led Kelly to seek and gain redemption by going to the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, which he had originally not planned to attend. In 2003, the Princess Grace Challenge Cup was launched by the Henley Royal Regatta as an event for women's quadruple sculls both in recognition of John B. Kelly and in memory of his daughter, Grace.

When he first made his application to race at Henley, Kelly told the press that if his entry was accepted, he would go to Henley and most likely would skip the Olympics. On learning of his rejection, Kelly was surprised and angered and stated: "I had made all the arrangements to sail for England I'll go to the Olympics now for sure. I want to get a crack at the man who wins the diamond sculls." Kelly soon had his chance, representing the United States at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. In a hard fought race, he won the single scull event, extracting a measure of revenge by defeating the winner of the Diamond Sculls, British sculler Jack Beresford. Beresford was one of the most talented oarsmen of the day and would go on to win medals at five Olympics. The race, one of the closest in Olympic history, featured a dramatic duel down the stretch with Kelly winning by a second. Kelly and Beresford would go on to become good friends. Half an hour after the singles final, Kelly teamed with his cousin Paul Costello to win the double scull (2x) race, a feat which has never been repeated at the Olympic games. After his Olympic victory, Kelly purportedly mailed his racing cap to King George V with the note, "Greetings from a bricklayer", for having been snubbed at Henley.

In 1924, Kelly and Costello repeated their success, winning the double scull event at the Summer Olympics in Paris. This made Kelly the first rower to win three Olympic gold medals and one of the most famous and successful athletes of his generation.

After a long courtship, Kelly married Margaret Katherine Majer (1898–1990) in 1924, daughter of German immigrants. Well known herself in the world of sports, she was the founder of women's sports in the University of Pennsylvania. Majer's family was Lutheran and she converted to Catholicism prior to the marriage. They had four children: Margaret "Peggy" Katherine (1925–1991), John "Kell" Brendan Jr. (1927–1985), Grace Patricia (1929–1982) and Elizabeth "Lizanne" Anne (1933–2009). John B. Kelly Jr. won the Diamond Sculls at Henley in 1947 and 1949. Jack Jr., as he was also known, won the James E. Sullivan Award as the best amateur athlete in the U. S. in 1947 for his accomplishments. He would go on to represent the United States at the 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games. Jack Jr. won the bronze medal in the single scull at the 1956 Olympics and continue to be involved in amateur sports, eventually being appointed President of the United States Olympic Committee shortly before his sudden death from a heart attack in 1985. Kelly's daughter Grace was an Academy Award winning actress who became Princess consort of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier in 1956. Kelly purportedly gave Prince Rainier a $2 million dowry for his daughter's marriage. Kelly is the maternal grandfather of Albert II, the reigning prince of Monaco. When Grace's engagement to Prince Rainier was announced, Kelly quipped: "I told the Prince that royalty didn't mean that much to us, and that I hoped he wouldn't run around the way some Princes do." Kelly was the model for the character of George Kittredge, Tracy Lord's brash, up and coming, man of the people fiancé, in Philip Barry's 1939 Broadway comedy The Philadelphia Story. Grace Kelly played Tracy Lord in the 1956 Cole Porter movie musical version, High Society. Grace visited her grandfather's cottage, the Kelly homestead, near Newport, County Mayo during her 1961 state visit to Ireland.

Kelly was actively involved in city politics, ran for mayor of Philadelphia in 1935 and holding the chairmanship of the Philadelphia County Democratic Party in 1937. At the time he ran for mayor, Philadelphia was a heavily Republican city, but he came close to winning, losing by fewer than 50,000 votes compared with the usual margin of 300,000. until June 1937, Kelly served as Pennsylvania secretary of revenue under Governor George Howard Earle III. He was a commissioner and later president of the Fairmount Park Commission, which administered Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, one of the largest municipal parks in the world. In 1941, President Roosevelt named the still popular Kelly as the National Physical Fitness Director, a post he held throughout World War II. Kelly was a strong advocate for physical fitness for all Americans, and in particular those brought into the military. In 1967, Philadelphia erected a prominent statue of Kelly by artist Harry Rosin near the finish line of the Schuylkill River course that Kelly rowed. It is located just off of the scenic Kelly Drive, which is named for Kelly's son, Jack Jr. Every year, USRowing, as the governing board is now known, bestows the Jack Kelly Award on an individual who represents the ideals that Kelly exemplified, including superior achievement in rowing, service to amateur athletics and success in their chosen profession.